TWO POUNDS!

Finally...FINALLY we hit 2 pounds! I felt like it would never come but alas it did. I'm so happy that Liam is now 2 pounds! He is now on 30 calorie formula since he was having some problems gaining. I'm still pumping constantly in hopes he won't be on this formula forever and will transition back to my breast milk.

YAY for two pounds!

Black Friday Madness!

On Thanksgiving my sisters and I were checking out the ads and decided we were going to hit up Toys R Us. My mom made a list and we were all out to get great deals on gifts for all the kids.

We left the house around 10 and Toys R Us opened up at 9. When we got there the line was out of the building still and we were like...umm, really? We weren't sure we wanted to do the crazy line to just get IN to the store so we drove around a bit and came back to the store about a half hour later and there was a very little line, so in we went.

We weren't prepared for what we were about to encounter...it was complete chaos! We were able to get just about everything we wanted but the worst part was waiting in the line. It went through aisles around the entire store, it was insane! We had a lot of fun and good laughs along the way but I'm not sure if we will be doing this again next year. We didn't get home until about 2 AM or so. We did get some really good deals though!

Thankful

We obviously have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Liam is doing so well and I'm so happy he is with us this Thanksgiving, even if he is still in the NICU.

Noah just loved watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade, his favorite part was the Spiderman segment! I'm pretty sure he would freak if he would see Spiderman Live in NYC. We've had to rewind that part of the parade many times, thank goodness for DVR.

Clint and I were cooking up a storm. We made green bean casserole, ambrosia salad, corn casserole and roasted garlic corn grits. Oh and pumpkin spice cupcakes! The best thing was the corn casserole and it was incredibly easy! The corn grits came in a very close second. I can't wait to cook it all again for Christmas because it was delish.

At my parents house, Noah read the "My Brother Is A Preemie" book to everyone. It was adorable. I'm so glad we taped it because once I watched it I actually was brought to tears. It was so sweet.

We make Turkey Oreos with the kids and that was a lot of fun. I found the idea on Pinterest and I think the kids liked making a little craft.

We of course made a trip to the NICU on Thanksgiving. My sister Robin and my dad came along with Clint and I. Robin hasn't seen Liam probably in a month possibly so he was much bigger this go round! She was even able to change his diaper.

I can't wait till next Thanksgiving when Liam is home and able to spend it with all of his family!

Superdome and Oxygen

Yesterday we were told they were taking Liam off of oxygen but once we got to the NICU he wasn't off of it, so we figured he wasn't ready and must have had some brady and apnea episodes.

Well today we got a call saying he really WAS off the oxygen nasal cannula. I was so excited and called my mom to see if she could watch Noah while Clint and I went to the NICU.

When we got there he was in this little dome. It actually said Superdome on it, so typical for a 'Nawlins NICU baby, right? Hehe, I kid that's the name of the brand but still very fitting!

Anyway, the difference is that the nasal cannula has a continuous flow of oxygen into his nostrils whereas the dome just has it in his "atmosphere" and it's not the flow going directly to him. Make sense? I hope so because I don't know how else to explain it! Either way, it's a pretty big deal and it's giving his poor little nose a rest since he has has it in for about a month.

Check out his dome! Who Dat! ;)

He looks so sweet with no nasal cannula!

Happy Birthday Clint!

This weekend we celebrated Clint's Birthday and we had a great time.

I get daily emails from Living Social and Groupon, so when I see a good deal I jump on it! This past weekend for Clints birthday we used 2 of them. Awesome! Savings and fun, it's a win win.

My mother in law came over early for us to go to Mahony's on Magazine Street since the last time we tried to redeem our Groupon the line was INSANE. We got there early and had a hard time deciding on what to order but we went with their famous roast beef poboy and a chicken poboy. Both of them were very yummy and we can't wait to go back.

After lunch we headed over to see Liam at the NICU. He is doing so well and here is an adorable picture of Liam and Clint.

It was great to go to lunch without Noah and then to the NICU for a visit together. Thanks to my mother in law for coming over to watch Noah!

For dinner that night we went to a mexican restaurant to celebrate Clint's birthday with his mom and Pop Pop Danny. We all had a great time and some good laughs.

On Sunday Clint and I went out to the Melting Pot and used our groupon (it was a GREAT deal by the way!). I've found out that people either love or hate this restaurant and we both love it. We always get the same things every time we go though because they are just so good there is no reason to change it up. However, we felt a bit wild this time and chose different things and they were very yummy. Thanks to my momma for watching Noah!

I hope Clint had a fun birthday weekend because I know I had fun celebrating it with you! Here's to many more! Cheers!

National Prematurity Awareness Day

I never thought I would belong to the "preemie" club or heck the "micro preemie" club but here I am. Before I had Liam I never thought of preemies. I had no idea how strong these babies were and the amazing advancements of medicine to keep these miracles alive.

Before becoming a preemie mom I had no idea that 1 out of 8 babies are born premature. That seems like a pretty high statistic to me and I wish it was lower. However, it does seem to be true in my family circle. My mom has 7 grandkids and 1 was born premature so it is a scary statistic that hits close to home.

Today, I wore purple in honor of National Prematurity Awareness Day. Liam and I got some good snuggle time. I'm a proud preemie mommy.

Puss In Boots

Last week I decided to take Noah to the movies. He loves the Shrek movies and has been seeing Puss In Boots being advertised so I thought it would be a nice treat to go to the movies.

The only other time we went to the movies was last summer when we saw Toy Story 3 and well that didn't go so well. He wouldn't sit down and really watch the whole movie hence is why I haven't taken him back in over a year.

Well he was good for about half the movie until we ran out of popcorn. Who knew Noah was such a popcorn fanatic? I bought him the kids pack and he munched through that bag mid way through the movie (ok, ok I may have had a few handfuls!). Once we ran out he became enraged...I mean really really upset!!!

"Mom, can we get more popcorn?" Noah said VERY loudly in the theater. I told him that I think we had enough treats in between the popcorn, fruit snacks and the sprite. Well Noah got very angry with me and said his newest and favorite phrase "Why won't you buy me any more pop corn? Is it because you HATE me?". Umm, what? HATE you?

What a nice thing to say in a dark theater filled with other parents with their kids. I was totally embarrassed. I kept on telling him that I didn't hate him but we had enough popcorn. His moaning and crying went on throughout the rest of the movie. Yikes. Then he had to potty towards the end, it was literally the last 5 minutes of the movie!

Next time I'm getting a large popcorn...I'm kidding! :)

My Brother Is A Preemie

We were recently given a book titled "My Brother Is A Preemie". Let me just tell you, this book is a great way to explain to Noah what is really going on in the NICU with Liam and the pictures are awesome! They have the isolette with a baby in it, they show a monitor and doctors/nurses. Noah really likes it. If you need a gift for a new big brother/sister to a preemie, I highly suggest it!

Noah wanted to bring it to school today to show his class but I wanted to make sure the teachers were OK with this first because I can't imagine how hard it would be to tell 10 other 3 year olds what a preemie is! They said they would love to read it to the class so Noah is so excited to bring it to school the week after Thanksgiving!

Noah now tries to recite the book. It's adorable! I am trying to read it every night to him in hopes that he can recite it on Thanksgiving to our family, I think it would be a nice treat and you can bet that I'll video tape it! It would be so sweet to play it for sweet Liam when he is older.